The purpose of the online Anabaptist Dictionary of the Bible (ADB) is to reflect (and to reflect critically on) an Anabaptist approach to the reading of the Bible. The Dictionary is intended to serve those in the Anabaptist traditions as well as to be a respectful conversation partner with those in other Christian traditions as authors give voice to an appreciatively critical Anabaptist perspective. It is a Bible dictionary wiki project with an Anabaptist flavor.

Origin and Early History of the Project

In 2007 the Editorial Council of the Believers Church Bible Commentary series discussed the advisability of developing an online Anabaptist Bible dictionary. Each of the subsequent years saw further discussion of the possibility. In 2010 the Editorial Council asked Dr. Paul M. Zehr to develop a budget for the project and to seek funding for it. It also asked Dr. Douglas B. Miller and Dr. Loren L. Johns (the current Old and New Testament editors of the BCBC) to serve as editors for the ADB and to launch the project by mid-2012. Early in 2011, Paul Zehr, Amy Gingerich (of MennoMedia), Doug Miller, and Loren Johns met to develop further the earlier planning. Initial grants funding the project have come from the United Service Foundation and the Schowalter Foundation.

Project Design

The online ADB consists of articles with an invitation to comment. Especially significant responses may warrant a separate essay, with a link to the original article. Authors are expected to be historically and descriptively fair regarding Anabaptist perspectives while also theologically constructive in their writing. That is, the ADB should not only reflect (and reflect on) a historical tradition; it should also contribute theologically to Anabaptism as a living vision embodied in multiple church traditions today. Writers should write for the church and not just for the historian’s and biblical scholar’s guilds.

Multilingual Global Project

As a global project, the ADB is looking for French and Spanish editors who can develop comparable essays in those languages (and/or translate ones originally written in English). Funds for translating have not yet been obtained. Additional languages may be added as authors, editors, and funds become available.